Actress Danielle Mone Truitt talks to The Inside Reel about legacy, evolution of character, loyalty and path in regards to the 4th season of her NBC series: “Law & Order - Organized Crime”.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 You know, Belle's been through a lot,
00:20 but so has the many teams she's been on.
00:23 But with organized crime, can you
00:26 talk about the dynamic?
00:27 Because every team's dynamic is different.
00:30 And obviously, with Stabler, obviously, there's
00:33 a consistency, but it's different.
00:36 Could you sort of talk about that psyche within her
00:40 going into this season?
00:41 I think going into this season, they just
00:46 suffered a huge loss with Detective Whalen dying
00:51 at the end of season three.
00:54 So I think, in general, everybody's mental health
00:57 is a little shaky.
01:00 And although it's a job and it's her job to lead the team,
01:05 they're human beings.
01:06 And she doesn't only lead them when it comes
01:11 to a case or whatever.
01:14 Sometimes she has to lead them emotionally as well,
01:17 including Stabler.
01:19 All of them choose the way that they want to grieve.
01:24 Or they all have a way that they're grieving.
01:28 And Stabler's way was to go take an undercover case.
01:33 He wasn't there for the two months that have passed
01:37 since Jamie passed away.
01:40 And so Belle's kind of been having to shoulder
01:44 the responsibility on her own.
01:47 And so he comes back at the top of this season.
01:50 And I think she wants to make sure all of the task force
01:58 members are well at the end of the day.
02:02 It's not just about how they can perform,
02:04 but making sure they're in the best place
02:07 that they can be emotionally.
02:08 As part of the mayor's Data-Driven Police Initiative--
02:11 DDPI.
02:12 Right, the DDPI.
02:15 We are supposed to do what is delightfully called
02:18 the periodic team incident reviews.
02:21 PTIRs.
02:23 OK.
02:24 Well, let's start with what we are calling the bobtail
02:27 versus pedestrian modality.
02:29 Now, it's based on an incident that happened
02:30 during the Los Santos case.
02:32 The IRP analyzed all data from the incident,
02:35 including video footage, witness testimony, skid marks,
02:38 even the weather, and used it to create
02:40 an interactive 3D reenactment.
02:43 The point being to extrapolate any other possible outcomes.
02:46 So what are your conclusions?
02:48 Watch this.
02:51 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:55 You see, we determined that there is an 89% probability
03:02 that all civilians would have been clear if that truck's path
03:05 had no action been taken.
03:07 This is what you've been doing all night?
03:09 This crap?
03:11 It's supposed to help.
03:12 But even in the first episodes of this season,
03:14 I mean, it's about trusting your gut.
03:17 The thing is that with their gut, it's always been good.
03:20 But when you have a loss like that,
03:22 obviously it gets skewed a little bit.
03:25 Can you talk about that?
03:26 Because it's interesting to see the choices
03:27 they're starting to make.
03:29 Right.
03:30 I think with Belle, this is not the first time
03:34 she's lost a task force member.
03:36 First season, she lost her CI, Gina Capaletti.
03:40 Then she also had to shoot one of the task force members
03:45 at the end of season one.
03:48 Last season, we talked a lot about her old partner
03:51 and how she lost him.
03:52 And now they've lost Jamie.
03:55 So I think with Belle, part of the thing that's gnawing at her
04:00 is why do I keep losing team members?
04:03 Why do people keep dying on my watch?
04:07 And I think for Belle, she's a problem solver.
04:12 So she's like, how do I solve this problem so that this
04:15 doesn't happen again?
04:16 How do I logically--
04:19 you know, how do I logically implement
04:22 something that can help us do our job more effectively so
04:26 that we don't have to keep losing people?
04:29 And so I think that's partly why she's so into this AI--
04:34 or she's so open to the AI thing.
04:37 Even though she does believe in trusting your gut
04:39 and all that, I think she's willing to try
04:41 a different approach.
04:45 Look, the thing you don't understand, Detective Reyes,
04:48 is that our brains, they are processing
04:51 enormous amounts of data about the world all around us
04:54 that we're not even aware of.
04:55 This is what we call instinct.
04:58 It's useful, but it is unreliable.
05:01 And most officers have a misguided faith
05:03 in their instincts.
05:04 Now, that is why data-driven policing is so important.
05:07 Let me just get this straight.
05:09 So your little AI is saying that if I had done nothing,
05:14 that truck would not have hit anyone,
05:16 and Espinoza would not have shot Tweaker in the head.
05:19 Is that what you're telling me?
05:20 No, that's what the model is telling you.
05:22 What are you doing?
05:28 Being unreliable.
05:31 The aspect of AI is the logic versus the motion.
05:34 Taking the emotion out of it.
05:37 Interestingly enough, watching how Law and Order has evolved,
05:43 obviously the cops have to evolve.
05:45 Can you talk about looking at that as the actor playing her?
05:47 What questions do you have to ask of her now in order
05:52 for her to do her job?
05:53 What have you found?
05:54 Or is it just going with the scripts
05:56 and how they say to do things?
05:59 Obviously, you know her so well.
06:01 Yeah.
06:02 I think it's a little bit of both.
06:05 We do get a script.
06:07 There is a certain storyline.
06:08 There are certain things that she has to say and do.
06:11 And we have conversations about those things,
06:14 whether they line up with who the character is.
06:18 I think with the whole AI thing and it taking out the emotion,
06:24 like I was talking about earlier about grieving and coping
06:27 and how people do that.
06:29 I think for Belle in this season,
06:34 I think her being open to using the AI
06:37 and just using the logic of it is her way of coping.
06:43 It's like seeing if this could be a better route.
06:47 I know Belle is a very emotional person.
06:52 I think the way that she interacts with her team,
06:55 the way that she checks on them, the way
06:57 that she calls Stabler out, it doesn't necessarily
07:02 come from a logical place all the time.
07:05 Some of the decisions that she makes
07:08 are not necessarily just playing by the rules all the time.
07:13 It is trusting her gut.
07:15 So I think she's purposely veering off
07:19 from maybe how she would normally run the team
07:24 to safeguard and protect herself and protect them
07:30 from the opportunity to mess something up and lose
07:36 something.
07:37 Because I think she feels like what they've been doing maybe
07:40 isn't working as well as she would want it to.
07:43 Sorry, had an interview.
07:45 Yeah, looking for a new gig?
07:47 No, on the Today Show.
07:52 Don't let me interrupt.
07:54 We get anything from the warehouse?
07:56 Shaw's team is still processing it,
07:57 but we do have forensics back from that slug
07:59 you pulled from the mosque.
08:01 And?
08:02 Guns leave microscopic tracings on rounds
08:04 like ballistic fingerprints.
08:06 That we know.
08:07 What I've never seen before is this.
08:11 According to the markings, this particular gun
08:13 has had a hand in four different murders
08:16 over the last two years.
08:17 They have no markers in common.
08:19 They even have different calibers.
08:20 Kind of suggests different shooters.
08:22 Rental, maybe?
08:23 You can rent guns?
08:24 Oh, yeah, there's a big black market for weapons
08:26 you can't find in the States.
08:28 Guns for hire, literally.
08:29 Look, I got a CI that might be able to point us
08:32 in the right direction.
08:32 Great, you and Jett run down a lead.
08:35 Actually, there was another avenue
08:38 that I was thinking of pursuing first, if that's OK.
08:42 Vargas can handle that.
08:45 I mean, the irony of the team, though, is unlike, say,
08:48 SVU or a regular law and order, is the aspect of masks.
08:52 I mean, they have to put up so many masks going undercover
08:55 that sometimes you can lose a sense of identity.
08:57 And that's what's really interesting,
08:59 seeing this season begin.
09:01 Could you sort of talk about that?
09:02 And sort of that--
09:05 it's an irony, but it's a dichotomy of self,
09:08 and how you have to deal with it.
09:10 Your character doesn't have to do it as much,
09:11 but you have to manage the idea of what
09:14 these people have to do.
09:16 Exactly.
09:18 I think Belle, she used to be a detective,
09:21 so she knows that life.
09:23 And she knows-- she's experienced having to do it,
09:28 and then also having to realize that you have a real life
09:34 outside of what you're doing for work.
09:38 And she's had these conversations with Stabler
09:40 over the seasons.
09:42 When he was undercover with the Albanians,
09:44 she had to pull his coattail a few times
09:48 to bring him back into what they're really trying to do,
09:53 what they're really trying to accomplish.
09:55 She had to do it last season with Jet,
09:57 when she got in too deep with one of the criminals
10:02 they were going after.
10:03 I think it's in human nature when
10:09 you're having to kind of live a double life for those lines
10:13 to blur.
10:14 And I think that's a fun thing about our show,
10:17 that we do get to delve into the psyche of people
10:22 who take on these jobs.
10:24 Because when you're human, even though somebody is bad per se,
10:30 when you really get to understand
10:32 why they're doing what they're doing,
10:34 you kind of--
10:36 you don't see as much of a difference between you
10:40 and the criminal sometimes.
10:43 You begin to see, like, oh, I actually
10:45 do understand why they chose this life.
10:49 And it's important to know how to snap yourself in and out
10:55 of that.
10:55 And the funny part is, as an actor,
10:57 you have to do the same thing.
11:00 Because acting is very psychological.
11:04 And depending on what role you're playing,
11:08 you have to turn it on and off so
11:12 that you're not living your characters in your real life.
11:15 Jet.
11:19 Are you OK?
11:28 Yeah.
11:29 Are you sure?
11:30 Because you haven't seemed OK since you got back
11:32 from Waylon's memorial in DC.
11:34 Neither has Reyes.
11:40 Listen, these things happen.
11:43 No judgment here.
11:45 But when it starts to get in the way of work,
11:47 then it becomes my problem.
11:49 And I got enough problems.
11:50 You get me?
11:55 I got you.
11:58 Handle it.
11:58 That leads to my last question.
12:03 Yeah, because that goes back to--
12:05 it's sort of existential.
12:07 We become our characters.
12:08 We understand them.
12:09 Do we accept them for what they are?
12:12 And that's always--
12:13 I think you have to.
12:15 Yeah, I think you have to.
12:17 To be a good actor, to be a-- well,
12:19 I don't want to say good actor.
12:21 To be a truthful actor, I think you
12:24 have to accept your characters.
12:25 There's been certain characters-- on this show,
12:28 of course, I'm playing a hero.
12:31 And there are some flaws, of course.
12:36 But it's not a highly flawed character.
12:41 But there's been other roles I've played where
12:43 the characters were very flawed.
12:45 And in order for me to--
12:47 I have to believe what I'm doing.
12:50 I have to believe that the decisions Belle is making--
12:54 I have to believe that she really
12:56 believes these are the best decisions to make,
12:58 for whatever reason.
13:00 And that's what makes it come off real.
13:02 If you're an actor and you disagree with your character,
13:08 then it's not going to be as believable
13:12 as you want it to be.
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